Righteous Complacency

Today, God met me. The sermon title this morning?

Righteous Complacency

What do you think about that? I read the bulletin and thought, "Well this sounds interesting. I don't totally get it." It certainly piqued my interest as far as sermon titles go. The main point that stuck with me was that Christians tend to make excuses for various complacent attitudes or choices we make. It's true. I've done it. I'm sure most of us have done it. It is easy to desire to fit into the culture around us, and it is growing increasingly easier to use that as an excuse to water down our personal life styles. Entertainment choices, modest clothing, and involving ourselves in every "good" activity that comes our way to the detriment of our families are just a few of these areas that I see people compromising on a regular basis.

In support of this point about complacency, Pastor Jason used the story of Lot to illustrate his sermon. The apostle Peter refers to Lot as a righteous man. When we first hear of Lot and Abram separating, Lot moves his tents near Sodom. Just a couple verses later, we see that Lot is living in Sodom. His family was the only family God was willing to save from Sodom when He destroyed it, so Lot must have been doing something right, and yet he did something so very wrong. I expect that He was doing a lot of things right, but we know that Lot was influenced by the culture around him because of what happened next in the story. Two angels sent by the Lord entered Sodom. Lot brought them to his home and insisted they stay there. When the people of Sodom showed up demanding to have their way with these two strangers, Lot offered his own daughters to them instead. You may look at this and think, "He was protecting the messengers of God," but what Lot really did was a massive compromise that likely destroyed his daughters. Can you even imagine doing such a thing? I can't. Fear often causes us to make compromises. We may not be giving our daughters to crowds to allow them to have their way with them, but Christians often make all kinds of other compromises that are just as dangerous to our souls.

I rarely, if ever, go into this much detail about a sermon in a blog post, but I was so very captivated this morning as I listened to the story of Lot in an entirely new light. I've always read the story and thought that Lot was anything but righteous, but the Bible tells us that he was, indeed, righteous. In some ways, I find this comforting. I judge myself harshly and don't view myself as righteous. I speak things I shouldn't, I sometimes have a short fuse, I have control issues (especially when my husband is driving), and I could go on and on. The good news is that, I seek righteousness, and Eric and I seek to give that passion for holy things to our children. 

Today's sermon left me feeling convicted and challenged, and I will spend time reflecting throughout the week on what the Lord wants me to do with the information. God was moving among us this morning. 

When we got home? One of those things I gave to God at the alter came up in our family conversation, not because I brought it up, but because God convicted Eric of the same thing. I love when God confirms something in our hearts like that. He is awesome, and today He made His divine presence known from the moment the first note of worship was played until we left the building and throughout the day. Even this evening, when we were back at church, God was growing us. 

I love that we are in a church where God is moving, growing, stretching, and teaching us new things. Today, I was filled by the Lord just as it should be. 

How was your Sunday morning worship experience? My hope is that you too were ushered into the divine presence of God!